Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help protect local authorities from cyber attacks.

Local authorities have the primary responsibility for ensuring that their online presence, digital services and internal processes are protected from outside interference. In addition, the Department takes the threat of cyber attacks to councils seriously, including by undertaking a survey of malware and ransomware across all English councils following the previous attack at Redcar & Cleveland and Hackney Councils.